[AT] Homemade trailers

[Robinson]

         Hi Dave:

         Son Scott got a good buy on a tri-axle gooseneck at French's 
Trailer over in (I think) your area. It had been a bumper pull but they had 
cut that hitch off, beefed the lower frame and built a very nice, very 
heavy gooseneck on it. It is nice for some really heavy stuff or more than 
one larger tractor but it doesn't get the use you might expect. It is too 
easy to hitch on to my bumper pull tandem for most things. I also like the 
fact that it sits so much lower.
         Most of those low priced trailers are "car haulers" and even then 
it better not be a big car. Almost all of them have a rail about 12" to 16" 
high and that rail is necessary to the strength of the trailer. If it is 
removed the lower frame must be beefed up to compensate. One guy I know got 
a surprise that simply hadn't occurred to him. When he hauled his first car 
he got in and drove it on the trailer. Oops! Couldn't get out of the 
car...   ;-)   He had to back it off to open the door to get out then push 
the car on the trailer. I once sold a WD Allis (stupidly, wish I still had 
it) to a guy that had a car hauler trailer. It wouldn't fit between the 
rails. I would have taken time to spin the wheels in but he was in a hurry. 
It was one that had the back couple of feet of the rail angled down to the 
lower frame so he just drove it on the trailer with one back wheel up on 
the rail and the other on the floor.
         In Indiana trailers are classed by GVW (including allowable load) 
for registration. The actual weight of the trailer doesn't matter except in 
how much it reduces your allowable payload. Trailers under 3,000# GVW do 
not require brakes on any axles. Most little single and tandem light 
trailers fall in this class. If you build a trailer here they want to see 
pictures of you building it and material bills or if it is made of car 
parts they want to see the title of the car you used. It all gets to be 
kind of a dance depending on just how stupid and silly the particular 
employee you draw wants to be. Sometimes if you have a problem with one if 
you can find out when that employee has a day off you can walk back in on 
that day and do what you want with no problems. There are two DMV offices 
in this county and many that have trouble at the Shelbyville branch get in 
their car and drive 10 miles north to the Morristown branch and walk 
through the process with no problem. They now title all trailers here (they 
think) . They didn't used to. I plan to plate my 32' gooseneck horse 
trailer / small tractor hauler (with living quarters) as an RV.
         I keep one 3,000# trailer plate, one 12,000# farm trailer plate 
and one RV trailer plate. I have a lot more trailers than 
plates...   ;-)    My farm plate is supposed to be limited in miles from 
the farm but it has been in a number of states. Some guys I know of here 
complain of getting stopped all the time out on the road but I have seen 
the way some of them load and the haphazard way they fasten the load down. 
I always use a lot more chaining than just what is required and if anything 
hangs over or is just even with the bed I flag it. A lot of being left 
alone by law enforcement is looking like you are thinking safety instead of 
just throwing it on the trailer and taking off. A lot of the guys that get 
stopped a lot attract initial attention by driving fast for where they 
happen to be. Here except for the DOT officers who are only interested in 
commercial stuff unless someone attracts their attention (like driving too 
fast or running stop signs or unsafe appearing loads) the regular officers 
don't much give a rats behind about the registration stuff or even the 
equipment stuff unless you do something stupid. I know a few of them 
personally that "fudge" a little on trailer stuff.   :-)   Most of them 
feel that their job is safety not bureaucratic stuff. I mentioned the guy 
hauling the WD Allis home up on the rail of the trailer... I'll bet every 
cop he passed on the way home looked him over...   :-)


"farmer"

I am the list owner of the following public email lists:
Allis_Chalmers
Budget_muzzleloading
Cheap-Shelters
Cheapcomputer
Cheapcritters
CheapPower
FrugalFunWoodworking
FrugalRuralLiving
NoNonsenseHorse
Smallfarmshop
truck-blab

Some are pretty quiet, some are very busy. Member counts range from 32 to 570.
All are on Yahoo Groups and can be found with a search at:
<http://groups.yahoo.com>

Also a newly created one called "100 Acre Farming" targeting folks who 
operate farms from about 75 acres to 150 acres. Those are not iron clad 
numbers. Midwestern farms in this class require a full line of farm 
equipment unlike much smaller farms but have only a little in common with 
the much larger farms common today.


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net